Valentino Fall/Winter Haute Couture 2015-2016.

Thurs. 07/09/2015.

Valentino Fall/Winter Haute Couture 2015-2016.

Rome. Home of Fendi, which showed it's one-off collection of Haute Fourrure the day before, and to Valentino's ateliers where the diabolically romantic and elaborate confections of Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaola Piccioli come to life. It was also where they decided to pay Homage to the eponymous master himself, Valentino Garavani, and in effect, to both of their own Italian heritage. What transpired happened to enrapture those that seen it in it's live form. Seeing the video and not being there in the magical space of the Piazza Mignanelli might have dulled the sensation of breathlessness for me, but all I can say is that, as obviously majestic and creatively exquisite this collection was, it was dreadfully, much of the same we've come to expect from the house with little variant of any kind.

The bloom has been off the proverbial Rose for Chiuri's and Piccioli's penitent, virginal, faux naïf vision for the house for quite some time now, and what has happened is that the collections suffer, morosely, from a sameness, that to say is dulling, would be to far too kind a degree of understatement! The duo's work has almost become as predictable as a Metronome, with the same painfully boring sense of repetition to boot. This collection, filled to bursting with glorious works of Alta Moda, could also double for any of the last 6 collections from the house! The high necklines, the sheer tulle and lace, the plodding, leaden floor sweeping hems, the monastic sense of restraint... all present and accounted for plus a few other tropes that have made the rounds.

Were there Dazzlers that stood out among the pack? Certainly. The show ending sextet of limpid, scandalously sublime Black Velvet gowns were heady fodder indeed, and there were others, however, those pieces still hearkened back to work that they have done already, so going into detail would be to reiterate praise that has been given before. As a celebratory return to Mother Roma... The collection was a thrilling success, I can't in any good conscience say that even as repetitive as it is, that most of the pieces were not Fantastically Extraordinary. But leave with this thought... As good as Chocolate Cake is... No one wants to eat an entire one, Correct? That is the equivalent of what Chiuri and Piccioli have been serving... One Hideously Rich and Lavish Chocolate Cake after another... Honestly... At this point... I am in the mood for some Gelato. Aren't you? 

That's All.

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Zuhair Murad Fall/Winter Haute Couture 2015-2016.

Thurs. 07/09/2015.





Zuhair Murad Fall/Winter Haute Couture 2015-2016.

What can be said that hasn't been said before... Beautiful, Glamourous, Exquisite... Blah... Blah... BLAH! Zuhair Murad's Fall/Winter 2015-2016 Haute Couture collection was a predictably boring succession of the same dulling wares he (and his Lebanese compatriot Elie Saab) has been producing for almost the entirety of his career. One showstopping, treacly, glittery, deathly dulling piece after another with little variation. This time it was the Galaxy of Stars that he alighted upon... Whatever! It didn't help the collection elevate itself in one single way! In fact, it was one of the weakest collections from Murad seen in a while. It was heavy and plodding and no excitement to be found, frankly, I don't want to sound like my needle is stuck in the groove, but why shouldn't I??? Murad is suffering from the exact same complaint!





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Fendi Haute Fourrure Fall/Winter 2015-2016.

Weds. 07/08/2015.





Fendi Haute Fourrure Fall/Winter 2015-2016

"Silver Moon" was the overarching theme to be found at the house of Fendi's first foray into Haute Fourrure. It was an Alta Moda/Haute Couture collection in all but name, and as such was a display of the maddeningly extravagant technical skills of the Roman Furriers ateliers. The Fendi sisters. led by Silvia Venturini-Fendi saw this as a chance, one, to celebrate the dazzling facility of it's craftsmen and women and two, a way to showcase the mastery of the craft of house designer Karl Lagerfeld, who would be celebrating (well, HE HIMSELF, wouldn't be celebrating, as allergic as Unkle Karl is to anything with a notion of the backwards glancing) 50 years designing for the house. One can fairly imagine it was akin to pulling teeth to even get Karl to commit to doing something that was in any capacity a recognizing of his tenure at the house, but Lagerfeld also likes to challenge himself, and push the limits of the people who work for him. Truth told, he seemingly enjoys pushing himself more.

So, this was an opportunity to show just what the Fendi family's technicians could achieve with fur. And, Oh! What they did accomplish! Firstly, Lagerfeld chose the Théâtre Des Champs-Élysées for showcasing the collection, famous for the infamous 1913 debut of Stravinsky's "Le Sacre du Printemps" and rightly so, Lagerfeld used it as score for the show. Secondly, as with the most recent Fendi collection, there was a influence of Giorgio di Chirico, with a huge backdrop of his painting "Piazza de Italia" serving to drive home the point. (Side Note: Chirico's painting is from 1913, also, same year as the debut of "The Rite of Spring, Lagerfeld's mind is dizzingly agile!)  As to the collection itself, Lagerfeld is always plucking and taking from different eras and periods to synthesize something entirely foreign to those times, but provocatively reminiscent of them as envisioned in the modern context. So, one could eek out allusions to Poiret in the cocoon coats or the 1940's as seen through the prism of Ridley Scott's dystopic and futurist vision of Sean Young in "Blade Runner" (The strong Joan Crawford Shoulders, the hair whipped up by Sam McKnight) or the highly stylized Glamour of Erté in the silvery, stylized floral embroideries and elaborate configurations of some of the pieces.

Even with all that boiling together in the stockpot, it never for one second felt trapped in any past, to be sure, it felt entirely of the now, maybe even a little, of the future now. The "Silver Moon" moniker of the collection lent itself more than subtly to the proceedings... everything was shining, almost glowing, but in that darkened theatre, it was as if we were watching some nocturnal migration of pelted beings saunter before us, embraced by the shimmery, ethereal glow of moonlight. The opening exit was all the proof that was needed, a tulip hemmed hooded mantle in deepest, darkest natural Sable (One cannot even FATHOM how much the price of this coat possibly could be) with a sweeping-the-floor train, slinkily stalked the runway and undulated as if it was Velvet. The Silver frost that all natural Sable has seemed even more eerily luminous in this and the following Sable exits that glided out. From this almost, demure opening, things began to shift into high gear as Lagerfeld and his seamstresses began to puzzle-piece together, imitate, reconfigure and pretty much destroy every conception of what fur can be... splicing together two or three diverse pelts into one organic whole... Cutting small pieces of fur of unknown varieties and applying them as applique embroidery ONTO FUR... Feathering long hair Mink to look like something from an ornithologists textbook yet never had these feathers arced skywards for a second! Attaching sheared Mink in a rippling Zig-Zag effect onto clear Plastic in a brief shift dress had to be the height of disregard for the precious nature of fur and made this piece even more delightful for it!

There were Stripes and zigs and zags and Mongolian Lamb mixed with Chinchilla and surmounted as a deliciously gaudy border on a White Broadcloth coat, there was Ermine that looked like Chinchilla, Chinchilla that looked like Lynx, Lynx that looked like... well... The most ungodly expensive and desirable thing in Lynx that any woman could hope to own! There was even needlepoint on Fur! FUCKING SERIOUSLY? Lagerfeld defied every single idea and conception of what Fur is in this monumental ode to all things pelted. It was a Brain-Scrambling masterpiece that will long give evidential proof that Lagerfeld occupies a space that no other designer has ever dared to dream of, and none that are still here, could hope to ascend to. He has no peer. He is an Island. One of Supreme Fashion Paradise. And one, we all hope that we can wash up on it's shores!





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Jean-Paul Gaultier Fall/Winter Haute Couture 2015-2016.

Weds. 07/08/2015.

Jean-Paul Gaultier Fall/Winter Haute Couture 2015-2016.

It is always, it seems, the simplest gestures from Jean-Paul Gaultier, that make the biggest impact. That was assuredly the takeaway message from his delightfully, yet somewhat consternating and overwrought 2015 Fall Haute Couture collection. With it's influence coming from the northern shores of Brittany, France, which has always held a place of reverence with the designer considering one of his most recognizable signatures is the Marinière Breton of Marine (Navy) Blue and White. That particular Breton stripe was splayed all over this collection, from the opening look with it's striped stockings, to the a cropped top with a ruffled skirt shape that was soon to be seen as a plumb line through the entire show.

That flattened circular shaped skirt was derived from the crêpe stands that dot the Brittany landscape and while amusing for a few exits, began to grow wearisome after a while. It added an unneeded and somewhat costume-like pall over the show, which in places showcased marvellously Gaultier's extraordinary gifts and facility of cut and execution. Take, per se, the sleek lines of a Blazer in Black Wool that was cut like a peacoat but slenderized into something much more formal, with it's military-ish gold embroidery on the sleeves, it had the allure of an Officer's jacket but so far more elevated it was not even funny. Or, take for example, humble inky Black Corduroy cut into a phenomenal pantsuit studded with Jet crystal "Pinstripes" that was a concoction which would have made YSL himself Swoon! Of course, there were sillier moments, it wouldn't be Gaultier if there was not these moments of camp and hilarity, the offence here was that those funny, offbeat moments, threatened to overtake the collection and mar it's brilliance. Gaultier walked a fine line that, too often, he stumbled over onto the wrong side of, and those missteps catapulted this collection into the gimmicky. 

When Jean-Paul is Good... He's OH SO VERY good, witness Ysaunny Brito in a Charcoal Pantsuit at Exit No. 45 and weep. The luscious simplicity and perfection of cut is nigh orgasmic. But counterpoint that with say... Exit No. 29 and you'll see where this collection went off the rails. Gaultier always marches to the beat of his own band, and in most instances, that unique singularity of vision yields marvels of fashion, This time though, somewhere along the way, Gaultier lost count of the beat, and the incongruity of such, almost led this collection almost to abject failure.

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Viktor & Rolf Fall/Winter Haute Couture 2015-2016.

Weds. 07/08/2015.

Viktor & Rolf Fall/Winter Haute Couture 2015-2016.

Fashion as Art? Art as Fashion?

Painting as Sculpture? Sculpture as Painting?

Quixotic questions to be asked and not quite fully answered at the 2015-2016 Fall/Winter Viktor & Rolf Haute Couture show. These ideas were posited and postulated to an ephemerally brilliant degree by Viktor Horsting and his partner Rolf Snoeren in a collection that dazzled the mind and the taxed it as well, ever so subtly. Coming on the heels of the cessation of their RTW line as so they could focus on their quirky, arty, couture label, that move seemed to concentrate their genius into one of the most poignant and deeply moving fashion shows I've ever seen. There wasn't much going on outside of the Ideé Fixe of transmogrifying what started out as wearable sculpture into real, in the moment, paintings that Horsting and Snoeren carefully draped and hung on the extensive back wall of their runway. Not every piece was a mutable object to be reworked from one state unto another, but they didn't have to be... The high-minded theorems presented here were about the exact nature of when does, and more acutely, CAN fashion, transgress into being ART? It's a big and loaded question that has been traversed by greater minds than mine and I am not really sure Horsting and Snoeren appropriately answered that question. I don't think their point was to, in all actuality.

Their point was more, to my imagining, to pose the question and give a demonstration on how to some way, come to the answer. Were these wearable "Clothes", outside of the daintily decorated Chambray smocks the models wore under their laboriously worked "Sculptures" (Which by the way, were the epitome of the opposite of couture)... Well, not exactly. Yet, the wondrous garments that weighed them down in the most magnificent of ways on top of or enrobing those smocks (Really, how some of those girls navigated some of the truly gargantuan pieces they were cloaked in is a triumph in and of itself, let alone the outlandishly taxing construction of said pieces!) were the story to be seen and experienced. Had Horsting and Snoeren spent one minute more on the underpieces, it would have worked against the theme that was being debated.

Should I talk about the clothes... Alright. They were unwearable to an almost lunatic caliber. Yet, had not the Belgian duo did so much to the clothes (those weighty wooden frames, C'MON!) the clothes would have had an almost Fairy-Tale like allure, and would have been fantastical, yes, but easily wearable in the context of Couture. Though, was that really anything that was of interest to Horsting and Snoeren? In the end, It doesn't matter. When all was said and done, the viewers were transported for a few brief minutes into a world where it seemed all was possible, that one could perhaps stroll into the Museum of Modern Art, gaily lift Van Gogh's "Starry Night" off the wall and wear it as a piece of clothing. That's not ever really going to happen, but in Viktor & Rolf's heads, It already did! Sort of.



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Alexis Mabille Fall/Winter Haute Couture 2015-2016.

Weds. 07/08/2015.

Alexis Mabille Fall/Winter Haute Couture 2015-2016.

If  Alexis Mabille could manage to bring an element of sophistication to his elaborate works that he presents for his usually over-designed Haute Couture collections and his designs didn't usually look pageant-ish and costume-y he'd do himself a world of favors. Even though his Fall/Winter 2015 Haute Couture collection was better than his most recent output, near the end it became as it usually does, convoluted. Starting off with a slinky fishtail gown in Emerald, it was also an exercise of overindulgence, surmounted as it was by a back draped shawl of sequins. 

As the looks progressed, they became an orgy of excessive detail and outsize exhibitionism of fabric and none of these details served the clothes in any matter other than to distract rather than amplify. A Shell Pink gown with a outrageously huge pouf of Rose Pink Taffeta on the shoulder looked baroque and operatic, and it was perhaps the only piece that didn't suffer from an overabundance of largesse, even though it was still quite grandiloquent. Mabille's collection was a typical extravaganza of superfluity and as such, suffered as his collections usually always do for it. 

If Mabille could tame his more excessive instincts and not gild the lily to within a 1/8 inch of it's life, he'd produce pieces that didn't look fit more for a production of "Die Zauberflöte" and work in a modern context. One can only hope he finds that the axiom of "Less is More" is something he should follow and apply to his work.

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Elie Saab Haute Couture Fall/Winter 2015-2016.

Weds. 07/08/2015.

Elie Saab Fall/Winter Haute Couture 2015-2016.

Gorgeous... Check! Beautiful... Check! Exquisite... Check!

Boring... Check! Redundant... Check! Expected... Checkmate!

Elie Saab's Fall/Winter 2015 Haute Couture opus was as about as predictable and underwhelmingly exciting as per usual the house. The seasons may change, but at Saab, the couture song remains the same! Effortlessly breathtaking and rapturously stunning evening wear aplenty, but all in the same tired formula we've been presented with season after season. Endless variations on the same theme that have grown from wearisome to tiresome to flat out who the fuck cares anymore! You've seen one lovely Saccharine confection, you've seen twenty dozen from Saab.

It'd be great to even point out a number of two that shone above the throng of sing-song-samey beauties... But there wasn't even one number that we haven't seen some derivation of in the past and done better to whit! One needn't wax prosaic on this effort... it was about 22 tons of sequins, beads and shimmer, stuffed in a 5 ton bag. The Song seems to still remain the same, Chez Elie Saab!

That's All.

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